Rogue
:For related articles, see Category:Rogues. The Rogue class is the premiere melee DPS dealer, approached in damage only by well-geared Fury Warriors and Feral Druids. They have access to a wide range of special abilities, which mostly depend upon energy. The mantra of the Rogue is "fastest to kill, fastest to die." Unlike Hunters and Mages who have the ability to deal damage from distance, Rogues must be in close, which often subjects them to tank-like damage input when caught out of stealth. Rogues rely on agility, but should also aim for gear with additional stamina. At the later levels, some Rogues opt to use Attack Power. Rogues can only wear leather or cloth armor, are unable to use shields, can only wield 1-handed weapons (daggers, swords, maces and fist weapons) and ranged weapons. At level 10, they can dual wield two one-handed weapons. At level 20, they gain access to Poisons through a quest. This class is best suited for players who like to quickly dish out large amounts of damage, sneak up on enemies and can vanish from sight if problems arise. Background The rogues of Azeroth are the masters of subterfuge, skilled and cunning adversaries of those who dare not look into the shadows to see what lurks there. Roguery is a profession for those who seek the adventures of stalking and silent forests, dimly lit halls and heavily guarded strongholds. Using trickery in combat and able to vanish at the slightest distraction, the rogue is a welcome addition to any group of adventurers. Ideal spies, deadly to those they can catch unaware, rogues have no problem finding a place in the world. Deadly masters of stealth, rogues are the whispers in shadowy corners and the hooded figures crossing dark fields. Skilled with daggers and the art of silent death, these vagabonds and bandits skulk about Azeroth seeking targets and profit. A member of almost any race can learn the tricks necessary to become a skilled rogue. Still, for the tauren and draenei, such a profession is an alien concept and therefore rare (if not non-existent) among those peoples. Rogues can be found among all races on Azeroth. Whether they are diplomats, spies, thieves, scoundrels, entertainers, or simply adventurers, you can find them plying just about any trade from Mount Hyjal to Ratchet. For as long as there were dark alleys and needs for dark services, there have been rogues, and thus they are one of the oldest professions in Azeroth. Rogues are a diverse class, and they are typically made up from the dredges of society -- cutthroats, pirates, robbers and low-lives. The only code rogues live by is the contract, and their word is only as good as the money their services are bought for. The diverse aspects of their trade requires rogues to be well versed in lockpicking, toxicology, rudimentary alchemy and brawling. In combat, rogues rely on the element of surprise, and tactics which are regarded by most as vile and cowardly. They are rarely seen entering a fight without weapons laced in poisons and ample supplies of blinding powder. Their attacks concentrate on weak points in the body in an attempt to finish fights brutally and quickly. Rogues play prominent roles in every aspect of society -- albeit, they will rarely be written in history books because their involvements will be largely unknown to the common person, but they are always there, greatly affecting the flow of events from the shadows. From the high-contract assassin hired in secret by respected noblemen to the lowly street mugger, rogues are the ones called upon when maintaining the status quo requires a questionable solution -- and by fulfilling it, are branded as outcasts by the society that calls upon their service. In Azeroth several rogues are free agents, though most prefer to join a guild for safety and ease of employment. Ravenholdt and the Syndicate are examples of said guilds, other recognized rogue organizations include the Shattered Hand, the Deathstalkers and SI:7. Races The Rogue class can be played by the following races: (See more Rogue races) Alliance * Dwarves * Gnomes * Humans * Night Elves Horde * Orcs * Undead * Trolls * Blood Elves All races can play the rogue with equal efficiency, but like any class in World of Warcraft, we should take a deeper look into the Racial Traits and how they affect the gameplay of a Rogue. * The Undead have the racials Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize. Will of the Forsaken allows an Undead rogue to get rid of fear, sleep and charm spells, and is a huge benefit in PvP when fighting priests, warriors or warlocks. Cannibalize can be used on humanoid or undead corpses to regain health, which helps to minimize downtime without wasting food, bandages or potions. * Night Elves have increased dodge (an extra +1%), increased stealth (equal to a +1,67 with 5/5 Master of Deception) and have the highest base agility in the game. Furthermore, Night Elves possess Shadowmeld, an ability which functions like a weaker, stationary stealth. Shadowmeld adds a new dimension in tactics for night elf rogues. * Gnomes have the racial Escape Artist, which allows a gnome to escape from a root/snare once every 60 seconds without the use of Vanish. Gnomes' small stature also can make them difficult to hit when combined with the jumping and spinning seen in PvP. * Dwarves have the racials Find Treasure and Stoneform. Find Treasure puts chests, clams, footlockers, etc. on the minimap when active. Since Find Treasure reveals footlockers, it makes the Rogue's Pick Lock skill much easier to level. Find Treasure does not stack with other tracking abilities such as find minerals, and other forms of tracking provided by gathering professions. Find Treasure offers no significant advantage in PvP or PvE. Stoneform, an activated ability, clears poison, disease, and bleed effects(also makes you immune to those effects while Stoneform is active) while also slightly increasing armor for 5 seconds. Stoneform can be situationally useful against any class that uses poisons or bleed effects, such as hunters, rogues, and warriors. * Humans have a 5% increase in spirit, as well as a 10% bonus to faction reputation gain. Humans also receive a +1% critical strike bonus to their swords and maces. Finally, Humans have Perception, an activated racial that greatly increases their stealth detection for 20 seconds. * Trolls have the racials Regeneration and Berserking. Regeneration allows a Troll to maintain 10% of their health regeneration while in combat, increasing survivability and minimizing downtime. Berserking is an activated racial the increases attack speed relative to the amount of health remaining. Berserking, combined with Slice and Dice, can increase a rogue's attack speed by 45% to 55% (depending on rank). This greatly increases a Troll Rogue's DPS and poison applications. Berserking requires 10 Energy to activate. Trolls also have a +1% critical strike bonus thrown and bow skills. * Orcs have the racials Blood Fury and Hardiness. Blood Fury increases an orc rogue's DPS while reducing their healing received by 50%. Hardiness increases the rogue's stun resistance by 15%. * Blood Elves have the complementary racials Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent. Mana Tap is used to burn an enemy's mana. Arcane Torrent, on the other hand, is a dual use racial. It provides a 2 second, area of effect silence as well as refilling up to 30 energy. These two abilities allow a Blood Elf to be more effective against enemy casters. It also allows them to recover from energy-expensive finishes very quickly. Blood Elves also have a passive +5 to arcane, nature, fire, frost, and shadow resistance. Starting Attributes Weapons The Rogue class has a few different weapon choices available. Weapon skills you don't start with can be trained in the appropriate capital cities. Ask a guard for the location of the weapon master and each weapon master will be able to tell you not only what he can teach you but where you need to go to learn the other skills. Weapon Choices Are: *Daggers *Thrown *Swords (One Handed) *Bows *Crossbows *Guns *Maces (One Handed) *Fist Weapons Using different weapons will probably affect the way you apply your talent points with this class. Some abilities, such as Ambush, Backstab, and Mutilate can only be used with daggers in the Rogue's main hand (Mutilate requires a dagger in both). If you are looking for a melee damage dealer that fights alongside a tank but is not the tank, then a sword, mace, or fist weapon is probably the weapon for you. If you are looking for a stealthy class that can do amazing damage with opening and finishing abilities then dagger will probably interest you most. Dagger Rogues are generally built more for burst damage and favored in PvP, sword, mace, and fist weapon Rogues are usually built for higher sustained damage which is usually favored for PvE. Many Rogue abilities are instant attacks based on the weapon damage of your main hand weapon, so it is desirable to use a main hand weapon with high damage on targets where your energy will be plentiful. Typically slower weapons offer higher damage ranges which increase the effectiveness of your instant abilities. They are often more effective than quick attacking weapons, due to their very low damage range. As of patch 1.8, weapon speed no longer affects the Attack Power damage bonus given to most instant attacks. They instead use a set multiplier based on the weapon type. Instant attacks using a dagger now use the set number of 1.7, while one-handed weapons such as swords and maces use the set number of 2.4. There is an exception to this rule in that Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike are not normalized (affected by this change) in which case very slow weapons will have greater overall impact. The normalized damage for a weapon used for instant attacks can be calculated as follows: normalized_damage = base_weapon_damage + (X * Attack Power / 14) where X = 1.7 for daggers, 2.4 for swords, maces, and fist weapons, or the listed weapon speed if using Hemorrhage or Ghostly Strike. Although weapon speed for normalized attacks does not contribute to the bonus damage from Attack Power, slower weapons generally have higher base damage and thus cause more damage overall. Having some form of weapon swap macro can be very useful for a Rogue. Sinister Strikes are substantially more effective with slow non-dagger weapons. With a weapon swapping macro, it's possible to use a dagger to ambush before switching to a slower main hand weapon for regular combat. Note that swapping weapons triggers the global cooldown, but if timed correctly (i.e. while energy is recharging) this can be a very effective technique. Weapons held in the off hand have only two instant attacks, Shiv and the off-hand component of Mutilate. Otherwise their damage contribution is reasonably straightforward. Off-hand attacks suffer a damage penalty. In order to apply poisons at a higher rate, a fast off-hand weapon is generally desired. Most players choose to use the same type of off-hand as the main hand (in order to benefit from weapon specialization talents), but some prefer to use the fastest dagger available in order to quickly apply poisons and interrupt spellcasters. Faster weapons are also favored for the combat talent Combat Potency due to the chance to regain 15 energy on a succesful off hand hit. Notable weapons '' See Rogue_equipment#Weapon_Selection'' Abilities This section provides a taste of the abilities of the Rogue. For more detail, see Detailed Rogue Abilities Stealth Main article: Stealth Rogues have the ability to stealth and become essentially invisible, while moving at slower speed. Stealthed rogues are detectable at close range, though will remain stealthed and appear translucent. Many rogue abilities require stealth, and others require being behind the target, which is often achievable (while solo) only in stealth. Other rogue abilities, notably Sprint and Distract, interact well with stealth, although some actions, like lockpicking, will break stealth. Stealth opens up a range of tactics and roles for rogues. Groups often rely on a rogue's stealth ability to scout dungeons, and to use Sap for added crowd control. In PvP, stealth combined with burst damage gives an element of surprise that can be especially effective against cloth-wearers. Stealth can be improved through talents, items, and enchantments, both to decrease the chance of being detected, and to increase movement speed. Poisons The Poisons skill is a secondary skill, similar to Cooking or First Aid, that is available only to Rogues. The Alliance's poison quest can be obtained at level 20 in Westfall from Agent Kearnen called Quest:Klaven's Tower; if you drop by S1:7 in Stormwind, Master Maithias will send you to Kearnen when the time is right by giving you the Mathias and the Defias quest. The Poisons skill allows the Rogue to brew poisons, which can then be applied to their weapons. Poisons generally either cause damage to the target (either instantly or as damage over time) or cause other effects (slowing the target, removing the effectiveness of healing on the target, etc.). Different weapons can have different poisons applied, and faster weapons cause the poison to proc more often. Poisons are a temporary weapon buff, and as such do not stack with other enhancements such as sharpening stones or buffs from shaman totems. All poisons have a timer, which formerly lasted 30 minutes but as of patch 2.3 was raised to 60 minutes. As of patch_2.1.0 a Rogue's poisons no longer have charges. The poison timer is displayed on the weapons properties when you mouse over the weapon. As of patch 1.10 applying poison will not break stealth or shadowmeld; previously to this, applying poisons would break these states. As of Patch 2.0.1, poisons remain on weapons through zoning between continents or into instances. A variety of talents in the Assassination skill tree enhance the use of poisons. Wearing 3 or more pieces of the Bloodfang Armor set increases the chance to apply poisons by 5%. Lockpicking Rogues have the ability to obtain the important skill Lockpicking. This ability allows them to open locked chests, lockboxes, and doors, depending on the Rogue's skill in lockpicking and the level of the locked object (note that blacksmiths can create keys to open locked chests and engineers can manufacture explosive charges that can open locked doors, in the case that a skilled Rogue is unavailable.) Lockboxes can be pickpocketed from mobs or found as loot and are essential to Rogues trying to level their lockpicking skill -- their color (grey - red) represents the skill necessary to open them (red means the Rogue's lockpicking skill is too low to open the object and must increase his/her skill level before attempting again.) Your lockpicking increases at the same rate as weapon skills (5 * Level) to a maximum skill of 350 at level 70. Early training in lockpicking for Alliance rogues can be obtained at level 16 by completing the Alther's Mill quest, obtained from Lucius, who skulks around the docks of Lakeshore in the Redridge Mountains; Keryn Silvius in the Goldshire Inn will send you to see Renzik at SI:7 in Stormwind who will send you to see Lucius (however, you can probably go direct to Lucius...) Some high-level dungeons (like the Arcatraz in Tempest Keep or the Shattered Halls in Hellfire Citadel) can be opened by a Rogue with a skill level of 350 in lockpicking. This can be a real time-saver for a group since the alternative to picking the locks to these dungeons is to complete several long quest chains resulting in a key reward. Stuns * Cheap Shot Stuns a target for 4 seconds and awards 2 combo points for use on a finishing move. This is a very useful opener that requires stealth and usually allows the Rogue to get 1 or 2 instant attacks off in addition to auto-attacks before an opponent can recover. * Kidney Shot Kidney shot is an excellent finishing move which stuns for up to 6 seconds depending on skill rank and number of combo points. It can keep a PvP opponent stunned long enough for you to kill them (especially if you master stun-locking). But in PvE it's also a great ability to help keep your group mates alive or to interrupt a spell being cast. * Gouge Gouge is not a stun, but is a very important skill that incapacitates your target. This is used frequently to stall an opponent allowing you time to regenerate energy and get behind your opponent to allow a backstab. Since it is considered an incapacitating effect, any damage caused afterwards breaks the gouge. This ability turns off auto-attack when used. * Mace Specialization. Placing talent points in mace specialization under the combat tree gives your maces a chance on hit to stun your opponent for 3 seconds. With one point in this talent you have a 1% chance of stunning your target and with 5 points you have a 6% chance. Please note that diminishing returns apply to all effects that cause players to lose control of their character (stun, incapacitate, fear, etc.). Stuns are split into 2 categories, controlled and uncontrolled. Cheap Shot is an example of a controlled stun and other stuns of this class, such as a Warrior's Charge and Intercept or Paladin's Hammer of Justice, will diminish each other's stun duration on a target. Mace specialization is an example of an uncontrolled stun and other stuns of this class, such as a Mage's Impact or a Priest's Blackout, will diminish each other's stun duration on a target. Gouge is not a stun, but is in a class of it's own, called incapacitate, which also includes Sap, Paladin's Repentance, Goblin Rocket Helm, and Horned Viking Helmet. Passive Threat Reduction All Rogues generate reduced threat, compared to most classes. While attacks from most classes generate 1.0x threat per damage, Rogues generate 0.71x threat per damage. Prior to v1.12, Rogue's threat reduction was 0.8x, but was additive with other threat modifiers. The reduction was increased because threat modifiers are now multiplicative. Talents * Note: Rogue Talents have been reviewed and revamped as of Patch 1.12. Rogue Talents are split into 3 categories: * Assassination * Combat * Subtlety Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, WoW Den's Talent Calculator, WorldofWar.se, WoW Vault, ThottBot, Merciless and Wowhead. See the Rogue talents page for further details. See the common Rogue Builds for some ideas to building your Talent Tree. Suggested Professions Leatherworking and Skinning this are very helpful at lower levels to make leather armor that may be more useful than some drops you get at that equivalent levels. Plus, at the low levels most of the animals you kill are able to be skinned which means you will level up in both quickly. A specialty in Elemental Leatherworking is also suggested since it is the best specialization for Melee fighters. Most leatherworking recipies fall behind the benefits of other professions. Pre-60 the Devilsaur set from Tribal Leatherworking has been call "Blue Epix" because it is such a solid set (2 pieces). A third alternative is Blacksmithing with the swordsmithing specialization. This opens up for crafting the Fireguard. This weapons can further be upgraded to Blazeguard, and finally Blazefury. Or you could go the alternate route of mace specialization and get the Drakefist Hammer. This weapon upgrades to Dragonmaw, and then finally to Dragonstrike. Engineering is also a viable profession which opens up various useful (and fun) items to your rogue. Perhaps the most notable items for a rogue are Goblin Jumper Cables and Deathblow X11 Goggles. Another pair of professions to consider is the combination of Herbalism and Alchemy. The Alchemy profession allows the Rogue to manufacture powerful potions, like agility enhancement and healing for example, that can come in handy in a variety of situations. Useful Add-ons This section lists some of the more helpful mods specifically for the Rogue class. ; EnergyWatch V2 : Displays a progress bar that fills, empties, and refills in time with your energy recharge tick. This can be extremely useful for timing that Cheapshot or Ambush so you tick immediately and have extra energy for a Gouge etc. ; PoisonMaster : Takes the math out of those Shady Dealer visits by allowing you to preselect the number and types of poisons you want to carry, and then automating the materials purchasing / creation of those poisons. ; Natur Enemy Cast Bars (NECB) : Notifies the player when someone begins to cast a spell. This is great since it lets you know when to kick, blind or stun the opponent; quite handy if you prefer not to be polymorphed. These and more Rogue-add-ons can be downloaded from Curse Gaming. End-Game Expectations Your main priority in raiding is melee DPS. You will need to use your aggro reducing abilities (such as Feint and Vanish) effectively. Unfortunately, Rogues often will not receive heals, so expect to use your bandages, potions, and other consumables for healing. Healthstones are ideal as you can carry a few (different ranks, and/or the improved versions) so long as the Warlocks are willing to conjure them. It is essential that Rogues attain the highest level of First Aid (300 at level 60 and 375 at level 70) for raiding. In many instances, most notably, Molten Core, most mobs are completely resistant to poison effects; therefore, a prepared Rogue will have Sharpening Stones or Elemental Sharpening Stones on hand to increase their damage. In Blackwing Lair, however, the mobs are not invulnerable to all Poisons. Unfortunately, most of your stunning abilities are not useful in end-game situations since many mobs are immune to stuns. In some fights however, certain strategies will require stuns (Razorgore, Majordomo, Battleguard Sartura). Many fights, if not all, require Rogues. Notable among them are Vaelastrasz and Broodlord Lashlayer. In the Vaelastrasz fight, Rogue DPS is key to ending the fight before the Essence of the Red buff wears off. Rogues will not get Burning Adrenaline unless they pull aggro, so their DPS will be constant throughout the whole fight. In ranged DPS fights, such as Shazzrah in MC, the Rogue's job is usually contained to ranged DPS or bandaging other raid members. Since the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, most raid instances were built to accommodate rogue poisons and the immunity to them has all but been outlawed. See Also * See Rogue Gear Guide for detailed information about choice of Rogue equipment. * See Starting a Rogue for some advice when starting out. * See Rogue Sets for discussion of set items for Rogues. * See Rogue Solo List for details how to do what Rogues do best, assassinate instance bosses and solo quests. * See Stealth Run for Solo or Duo-able dungeons. * See Stealth_Chests for soloable chests in instances. * See Rogue races for rogues by race. * See Flintlocke's Guide To Azeroth for a glimpse of what the world would be like if there were no Rogues. External links *Rogue TalentGuide - Helps new Rogues choose their talents at levels 1 to 30. *Encrypted Text - weekly rogue feature at WoW Insider Category:Classes Category:WoW Classes